Air-brake coupling.



O. F. KIWPATRICK.

AIR BRAKE COUPLING.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 13. m5.

1,, 1 535 31 i Patented Sept. H, 1915.

3 n u k2:

arrsnuam courtrue.

Specification or tettere, Eatcnt.

Patented dept. lid, lltuld.

Implication filed January 13, 15913 Serial Ill 0. 2,057;

To all whom it may concern Be it known that l, Oasou. F. KEE- rarmcrr, acitizen of the United States, rei siding at North English, in the countyof p Iowa and State of Iowa, have invented certill tain new and useful1m rovements in Air- Brake Couplings; and do hereby declare thefollowing to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention,such as will enable others skilled in' the art to which 1t appertains tomake anduse the same.

This invention relates to air-brakes used on railway trains, moreespecially freight trains, and the object of the invention is to providemeans for automatically coupling the air-pipes with which suchair-brakes are su plied. I

the invention. is fully disclosed in the description and claimsfollowing, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in which-Figure 1!. is a side view, partly in section, illustrating myinventionas in use. Fig. 2 is a mid-sectional plan view of the same.Fig. 3 is an end view illustrating the mountlog or cage for thecouplingbar, shown 1D section.

Referring to the drawing, 1 denotes the under frame of a car, belowwhich is mounted in the usual way the regular car-coupling 2, suitablysupported as by a yoke 3. D1- rectly beneath the ear-coupling is mountedthe air-coupling, which is the siibject of this invention.

The coupling comprises a pair of engaging heads or coupling-bars, ofwhich one is supposed to be attached to the car at each end. The mainbody of the bar is tubular, and on its reduced rear end portion 4 ismounted a spring 5 compressible between the shoulder 6 and the abutment7. An

angular plate 8 at the rear end prevents the bar from turning and limitsits forward movement. The main body of the bar 9 is mounted in a cagewhich may be suspended from the yoke 3, and comprises a rectangularframe 10, cross-bars or plates 11 and 12 slidable in the frame, andsprings 13 be-- tween the plates and the inner sides of theframe. itwill be seen that the outer ends of the plates 11 are forked: at l i,and the other plates, 12, have terminal tongues 15 passing through theforks transversely, the eflect of which construction is to permit thecoupling-bar to move in any desired direcion, up, down, or to eitherside, a limited distance. The holding-plates are held slid ably in thecage, as by ribs 26 engaging the forked plates, the other plates beingheld I by the forked ones. "The abutment is most conveniently attacheddirectly to the cage, as by a tail-piece 27, but may be otherwisemounted if desired. Normally, as will be evident, the bar is heldcentrally, and as best shown in Fig. 3. This freedom of movement is madenecessary by the fact that the pair of coupling heads when engaged arerigid, and the interlocked pair must swing sidewise when the cars goaround curves, and-must yield vertically when cars of different heightarecoupled, or when the cars vary vertically, from any other reason. Toallow for this swing of the coupling-bar it is rather loosely mounted inthe abutment, as shown. Z.

I. The engaging'heads are inclined at 16, and provided with a partiallyencircling and flared hood 1?, which serves as a bell-mouthed guide forthe endofthc' companion coupling- This end is fofnled as a terminaltongue 18, which in con 1mg position enters a socket 159. When sointerlocked, as shown in. Fig. 2, the parts are brought to exactposition, and the packing-rings at the air terminals are brought snuglyand properly together. Ordinarily they will so remain until the cars areuncoupled, with no other aid than the end pressure of the springs 5, butto guard against contingencies provision is made for locking them inthis position. A simple device for this purpose is a latch or hook 21pivoted on each coupler-bar at 22, and engaging a notch 23 in the tongueof the companion coupling. In coupling, the respective heads are pushedback considerably', as shown in Fig. 1, correspondingly compressing thesprings 5. This alldws for the use of a slack chain 24; connccting withan arm 25 of the hook and some fixed part, as the cage, to disengage thehook when the cars are uncoupled, in a manner so simple as to require nodescription.

ill)

the part of either to act Would not necessarily create a leak of air atthe joint.

To the rear end of the coupling-bar is 'at tached a section of air-hose,the opposite end of which is suppbsed to connect similarly Withanothercouplingat the other end of the car.

Having thus described my invention, I

claim: 1. An air-brake coupling, comprising a centrally tubular bodyadapted'to connect at its inner end With an air-hose, a sideWise andvertically yieldingmounting therefor permitting endWise slide of saidbody, a spring cooperating with the coupling body to force it outwardly,a laterally inclined head with a centrally disposed airhole and ayielding packing therefor, the head being extended to form astraightsided terminal tongue, a bell-mouthed guiding hood terminatingin a socket for the tongue of a companion head, and means to prevent theaxial turning of said head.

centrally disposed 2. An air-brake coupling, comprising a centrallytubular body adapted to connect at its inner end with an air-hose, ayielding mounting therefor permitting the body to move endwise a limiteddistance, means adapted to prevent its turning axially, a springcooperating with the body to force it outwardly, a laterally inclinedhead with a air-hole and yielding packing therefor, the head beingextended toform a straight-sided tongue, a flaring hood terminating in atongue-receiving socket, a latch engaging the tongue when in coupledposition, and a slack chain connecting the latch With some fixed portionof the apparatus, and operating to release the latch by the take-up ofthe slack.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of tWo witnesses.

ORSON F. KIRKPATRICK. lVitnesses:

J. M. ST. J oHN, MARY DUNLAP.

